On Wednesday, March 25th, the UVa Board of Visitors announced their decision to name the new residence hall built on Alderman Rd., Gibbons House, in honor of the slave couple William and Isabella Gibbons. According to the Slavery at University of Virginia Visitor’s Guide and a report from UVAToday, Mr. Gibbons was a slave for Professor Henry Howard in the 1840s, and later worked as a butler for Professor William H. McGuffey at the University of Virginia. Mrs. Gibbons was a servant…

Last night, Tuesday March 17, a third year UVa student was held down and arrested by Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) officers outside of Trinity Irish Pub on The Corner. The student is involved in Kappa Alpha Psi, the Honor Committee, the Black Student Alliance, Student Council, and Orientation Leaders. According to an email from the Black Dot [WARNING: graphic content], the student was denied entry into the bar and after a confrontation with officers, the student was thrown to the ground, causing a…

Former Alabama Congressman Artur Davis visited the University of Virginia’s Jefferson Society to discuss issues of polarized politics in America today. The Congressman challenged voters to fix today’s political environment by electing officials who are educated on current political issues and are capable of making reasonable decisions in their position of power.

The UVa Winter Activities Fair is an annual event where students can get affiliated with organizations around Grounds. Student groups (such as The Virginia Advocate, Burke Society, and Hoos for Life) have a prominent presence at the Activities Fair and bring students of conservative thought together.

A major natural disaster hit the Philippines in early November when the Category 5 Supertyphoon Haiyan killed nearly 6,000 people and caused billions of dollars of damage. On December 2nd, Dr. Dante Simbulan talked to the Organization of Young Filipino Americans (OYFA) in UVa’s Maury Hall about the Philippines’ pervasive and worrisome internal corruption, another problem the Philippines are facing that cannot be ignored. As the director of Katarungan (“justice” in Tagalog), a DC-based coalition supporting the human rights of Filipinos, Dr. Simbulan has worked with many…

Right-leaning Americans, ranging from establishment Republicans to Tea Partiers and libertarians, have often called for a return to Constitutional principles. As head of the Washington, Jefferson, and Madison Institute, however, J. David Goudy believed that even the most ardent enthusiast of the Framers still had much to learn, given the selective nature of historical transmission. Speaking on November 21 to the University of Virginia’s chapter of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), Goudy based his lecture in the Rotunda on the Institute’s official guide to the…

News is breaking that Virginia State Senator Creigh Deeds (D-Bath) is in critical condition at the University of Virginia Medical Center after being stabbed in his home. Additional reports suggest that Deeds’ son Gus has died from a gunshot wound. According to the PilotOnline.com, state police arrived at Deeds’ home around 7:25 this morning to respond to the incident, which resulted in the senator’s airlifting to UVa’s hospital for treatment. The Virginia State Police issued a press release including the following: “Senator Creigh Deeds has…

As dawn broke on November 10, 2013, the Filipino survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan (local name: Yolanda) watched as their world was torn apart: buildings were destroyed and whole towns in the Central Philippines were swept away–in fact, 56,000 homes are reported to have been destroyed, according to a recent NBC report. One local resident, Jenny Chu, told ABS-CBN News how people were “walking like zombies looking for food.” And all of this came in the wake of a 7.2 earthquake in Bohol which…

With the rising cost of college tuition and the expansion of alternatives to higher education, universities all over America are questioning their relationship with contemporary society. Despite these challenges, Don Michael Randel, the president emeritus of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is confident of the educational system’s resilience in the present age. As part of the University of Virginia’s series on “The Future of the University,” Randel spoke on November 1 about the frontal role of pedagogy in university administration. Addressing a…

From the war in Syria to the struggle for gay equality, political activists have invoked diverse causes in the name of human rights. As various cultures disagree on the nature of a just society, however, finding a universal definition for these rights seems more illusory than ever in a globalized age.